The Anaheim Ducks came into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the NHL having won six of their last eight games, but only had the eighth seed in the West to show for their regular season. The Ducks carried that solid play into the lion's den of the Shark Tank on Thursday night, home of the top-seeded Sharks, and came out victorious, 2-0. With goals from Scott Niedermayer and Ryan Getzlaf, the Ducks took the opening game of the serious on the road despite being outshot 35-17 on the night.
Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller showed exactly why he had taken the starting job down the stretch from JS Giguere and why the Ducks decided to waive Ilya Bryzgalov last summer. The team was confident in its netminders, especially Hiller, and rode his solid play to a win in the opening game.
It wasn't a completely smooth game for Hiller, though. He was solid in between the pipes, stopping anything that came his way but one quite a few occasions he misplayed pucks behind his own net, turning the puck over to the Sharks or getting caught out of position. However, he got bailed out by his defenders or a lucky bounce off of the wall a couple times.
For the 17,496 that packed HP Pavilion and were roaring from the start, this had to be a scary reminder of playoffs past. The Sharks have a history of coming up short in the post season despite being a high seed. They have made the playoffs nine of the past ten seasons and have made it out of the second round once, never having made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. Each of the last two years, they have had more than 106 points in the regular season only to lose in the second round of the playoffs.
The Sharks played solid all night long, but couldn't solve Hiller or score on any of the six power plays they were given, three of which came from mistakes from veteran Rob Niedermayer. Now, they've lost home ice and have given a good scare to their fans who may now be saying to themselves, "oh no, here we go again."
